Super-frog Saves Tokyo

‘What you see with your eyes is not necessarily real.’ A lavishly illustrated edition of Murakami’s classic story.

Katagiri found a giant frog waiting for him in his apartment. It was powerfully built, standing over six feet tall on its hind legs. A skinny little man no more than five foot three, Katagiri was overwhelmed by the frog's imposing bulk.
‘Call me “Frog,”’ said the frog in a clear, strong voice.
Katagiri stood rooted in the doorway, unable to speak.
‘Don't be afraid. I'm not here to hurt you. Just come and close the door. Please.’
Briefcase in his right hand, grocery bag with fresh vegetables and canned salmon cradled in his left arm, Katagiri didn't dare move.
‘Please, Mr. Katagiri, hurry and close the door, and take off your shoes.’

Fully illustrated and beautifully designed, this special edition of Murakami’s celebrated short story sees the bewildered Katagiri find meaning in his humdrum life through joining forces with Frog in an effort to save Tokyo from an existential threat.

‘No other author mixes domestic, fantastic and esoteric elements into such weirdly bewitching shades’ Financial Times

‘A master storyteller’ Sunday Times

About the Author

In 1978, Haruki Murakami was twenty-nine and running a jazz bar in downtown Tokyo. One April day, the impulse to write a novel came to him suddenly while watching a baseball game. That first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, won a new writers' award and was published the following year.

More followed, including A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, but it was Norwegian Wood, published in 1987, that turned Murakami from a writer into a phenomenon…